Posted on 12/02/2013 12:58:14 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Don’t get too excited about the latest St. Cloud State University poll in Minnesota, but it does at least offer a glimmer of hope for a Minnesota Republican Party that still finds itself in financial and organizational straits. Just a year after getting blitzed in the 2012 election, Minnesotans find themselves less than enchanted with Democratic officeholders. And 2014 incumbent Sen. Al Franken fares the worst of all:
In the poll released this week, 44% of Minnesotans polled said Governor Mark Dayton is doing excellent or pretty good. That’s a 9% drop from last year, which political analyst David Schultz says may have something to do with football.
“I think he’s getting a lot of blowback on the Vikings stadium,” said Schultz, “especially in the financing mechanisms, and I think he’s starting to feel some of the repercussions and some of the negative approvals coming off of a deal many people are thinking was not best for state of Minnesota.” …
In the Senate Democrat Al Franken shows only a 39% in terms of a pretty good or excellent rating. He too is up for re-election next year. Last time Franken only eked by Norm Coleman in a recount.
Franken has kept a low profile in the past five years since his disputed election in 2008, which has served him well back home, at least until now. He only gives interviews to Minnesota media, and after a couple of incidents in his first few months of attempting to pick fights on the floor of the Senate, he has become a natural backbencher. Minnesotans aren’t terribly impressed with public-relations stunts from their politicians, with the temporary exception of Jesse Ventura, and the low profile has protected Franken from questions about his lackluster track record and rubber-stamp approach to the Obama agenda.
That, however, has backfired of late, thanks to the ObamaCare disaster. Barack Obama has also nose-dived in a state which he won handily a year ago, dropping nine points as well to 38% who give him “excellent” or “pretty good” marks on job approval. That kind of linkage — if supported by more polling — might force people to rethink the risk Democrats run in 2014′s midterms, especially for Senate seats. Most people would have considered Minnesota a fairly safe bet for Franken’s re-election, and Republican disorganization might still prove that true. But if ObamaCare drives numbers this far down in blue Minnesota, which states will still be safe for Democrats in 2014?
Small wonder, then, that Franken told Minnesota Public Radio last week that he’d back a delay in the individual mandate if the incompetence continues at HHS. Franken might be forced to raise his profile in order to do something he hasn’t done in the past five years — distance himself from the Obama agenda. He won’t be the only one doing so, either, if this disaster rolls into January.
Eric Ostermeier analyzes the buyers’ remorse arising in Minnesota:
Polling has been sparse in Minnesota’s 2014 U.S. Senate race – a contest that a year ago was seemingly a slam dunk for one-term DFL incumbent Al Franken.
Franken’s seat currently sits on the ‘watch list’ of D.C. prognosticators Charlie Cook and Larry Sabato – both identifying the race as a ‘likely’ hold for Franken, with the caveat that the race may yet become competitive.
Such caution seems validated in light of a new St. Cloud State University poll that was released on Wednesday, which shows Franken receiving a job approval rating of just 39 percent among his constituents – 18 points behind the state’s senior delegation member Amy Klobuchar at 57 percent.
Fifty-one percent of Gopher State residents rated Franken’s job performance negatively.
I’m still skeptical of a flip in Minnesota, but I’d have laughed out loud two months ago.
I wish Republicans would bitch less about vote fraud,
and put a few seconds of thinking into...
avoiding nominating assclowns like
Akin, Murdock, Bock, and Angle
Who is the Governor of MN? That may well determine if voter fraud can be curtailed enough to yield a fair election.
RE: Who is the Governor of MN?
MARK DAYTON, DEMOCRAT-FARMER-LABOR Party.
Dayton defeated Republican Tom Emmer in 2010 to become Governor of Minnesota despite national success for the Republican Party, including in the Minnesota legislature.
His major legislative initiatives as Governor include the construction of Vikings Stadium for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) in Minneapolis, and the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Sadly it appears to me that most of the places where FReepers attribute the outcome to vote fraud have R governor and R Sec of State - Ohio, Virginia, etc.
It’s a shame this man was ever elected to the Senate in the first place. Hopefully he’ll be gone soon, and that will happen only when the voters in Minnesota, who voted for him last time, suddenly get hit with some common sense.
I’d ask if your state has ever elected (or in Franken’s case, SELECTED) a Democrat but since you don’t list one, I assume you’re in the clear.
Where all the women are strong and Al Franken is well below average.
Oh no, we're the ashamed bringers of Dungheap Harkin.
Or vote for the R in such large numbers there is NO recount to cheat with.
One problem..
Who is the R running?
If I don’t know and I follow things fairly closely.. The GOP better get to work.
To be fair. WE (Minnsotans) didn’t give you Al Franken. AL Frankens lawyers gave him to all of us.
Ritchie touted accomplishments that included maintaining Minnesota’s tradition of the highest voter turnout in the nation and promoting the state’s history and public service. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha 107%
They’ll just round up the lizard people vote.
Yeah, that does indicate shenanigans.
But, those appointed to watch that sort of thing are asleep at the wheel.
Or complicit.
In this case, complicit.
So true! I haven’t heard any concrete candidate names for R yet. Is there anyone out there that comes to your mind that would be a stand out?
Nope...
Emmer is running for Gov if I remember correctly.
Is he? I thought he was running for Bachmann’s seat. Did he change his mind?
Mark Ritchie will make sure that Al Franken stays in. Just preposition some “abandoned cars” in Chisago City with premarked ballots. Hey, it worked before!
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